Turning 40 in '23 (Part I)

Albums (The Bus 4.2)

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

The Bus Volume 3 included three issues¹ looking at albums, books and films released 50 years ago. They were popular Stops, so I decided I’d do something similar in Volume 4 - starting with today’s look at five albums released in 1983. There are many classics, including U2’s War, The Police’s Synchronicity, Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut, Metallica’s debut Kill ‘Em All, Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man and Huey Lewis and the News’s Sports. And while all of these are good in their own way and worth dusting off, today’s Stop is a brief look at five other albums which in my mind are indelibly linked to the year I turned 14.²

Photo by Matthew Alexander on Unsplash

Pyromania was Def Leppard’s third studio album, but producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange³ helped the band craft the radio-friendly sound which would propel them to mainstream success. The album - with hit tracks such as ‘Rock of Ages,’ ‘Foolin’ and ‘Photograph’ - was released to generally positive reviews, though some fans and critics disliked the band’s movement away from the more traditional heavy metal of its earlier releases. Nevertheless, Pyromania was a hit and went on to sell more than 10 million copies in the US alone. And ushered in, of course, countless pretenders.

Let’s Dance was David Bowie’s 15th studio album and, despite his established ‘popularity and influence,’ none of the previous 14 had ever reached platinum status. With releases such as the title track, ‘China Girl’ and ‘Modern Love,’ the album - produced by Nile Rodgers and featuring the then-unknown blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar - would change this: Let’s Dance sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Rodgers’s influence ‘significantly changed’ Bowie’s music by introducing a more dance-oriented sound which incorporated elements of funk, new wave and pop. Though the critical reception was mixed, the album catapulted Bowie to popular success, but it also marked the beginning of a ‘period of low creativity.’ Believing he had to ‘pander his music to his newly acquired audience,’ Bowie’s next two albums were largely dismissed - a period he later referred to as his ‘Phil Collins years.’

Speaking in Tongues was the fifth studio album by Talking Heads. Noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles - including funk, new wave, and African polyrhythms - this distinctly art-rock album also proved to be a successful crossover, containing the band’s first and only Top 10 hit in ‘Burning Down the House.’ A reference to the religious practice of glossolalia,⁴ the title reflects the theme of the album’s lyrics. Often ‘cryptic and nonsensical,’ they were described by Village Voice critic Robert Christgau as being ‘quirkily comfortable’ while concurrently expressing frontman David Byrne’s ‘confusion about what it all means.’

The Principle of Moments was former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant’s second solo album, and with it he ‘found a comfort level.’ In an interview with MTV⁵ on its release, Plant noted he had become ‘finally the master of my own ship. I’m far more in control than I ever was before.’ Produced by Plant and featuring Genesis’s drummer Phil Collins on five of the eight tracks,⁶ the album was a further departure from the heavy metal of his previous band. Featuring a more pop-oriented sound that included elements of world music and reggae, tracks such as ‘Big Log,’ ‘Other Arms’ and ‘In the Mood’ established him in his new role as a solo artist - and a force in his own right to be reckoned with.

Genesis was Genesis’s self-titled 12th album and the first to be recorded entirely in their own studio.⁷ This freedom gave them the confidence to go into the studio blindly, without anything written. The songs were developed through jam sessions and eventually they created one of their most successful releases. Genesis sold more than 4 million copies, with the lead single ‘Mama’ becoming their highest charting song in the U.K. and ‘That’s All’ becoming their first Top 10 hit in the US. The album is divisive amongst Genesis fans, largely because at this point the band was consciously moving from its earlier, progressive sound towards a focus on shorter, more straightforward, radio-friendly songs. Which, of course, meant that for the next several years Phil Collins was everywhere.

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to a video (9:14) from Vox - ‘How Airplane Legroom Got So Tight’. It’s an interesting exploration into the reasons behind the changes airlines have made to seats and legroom (and by extension luggage, carry-ons, cabin selections, etc.) over the last decades. Worth the time.

How Airplane Legroom Got So Tight

The Recommendation

Today’s Recommendation is Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983), a British comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe. Directed by Terry Jones and the final film to feature all six members,⁸ the film takes the form of a series of interrelated sketches exploring the meaning of life - from birth to death, and everything in between. Darkly funny and surreal, it doesn’t shy from addressing some of life’s biggest questions, including the existence of God, the purpose of suffering, and the meaning of happiness. It’s very funny - and it contains some killer songs, too.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) Trailer

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks taken from the albums featured in today’s Stop: ‘Photograph’ (Def Leppard, Pyromania), ‘China Girl’ (David Bowie, Let’s Dance), ‘This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)’ (Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues), ‘Big Log’ (Robert Plant, The Principle of Moments) and ‘Mama’ (Genesis, Genesis). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from the Narrator at the end of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life:

‘Now, here's the meaning of life. Well, it's nothing very special: Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

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Until the next Stop …

1. Issues 3.25, 3,33 and 3.41, if you’re interested.

2. Sources for today’s Stop include 40 Albums Turning 40 in 2023 and various Wikipedia articles.

3. Lange produced albums and/or tracks for AC/DC, Foreigner, The Cars, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Ocean, Britney Spears, Muse, and Shania Twain (who he was married to at the time) - among many, many others,

4. Literally ‘speaking in tongues.’

5. Remember MTV? In the early 80s they used to play music. That’s what the M stood for - not ‘meh.’

6. Collins - despite his enormous success as both a solo artist and with Genesis (seriously - at the time it seemed you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing his voice) - was the drummer for Plant’s North American tour of the album.

7. The Farm, in Chiddingfold, Surrey.

8. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.